WTO forces Franken-FOOD down EU's throat

After reading this, you have to wonder; is there anything our government does NOT force upon others?

The [WTO] ruled against the [EU] in a dispute over genetically engineered crops from companies such as Monsanto Co. . . . [concluding] that the EU discriminated against biotech seeds without adequate scientific evidence.

[The] U.S., Canada and Argentina, which accounted for 80 percent of the area planted to biotech crops globally last year [filed a complaint in 2003, accusing] the EU of maintaining an unlawful ban on the seeds.

[T]oday's confidential ruling [may not] open markets in Europe . . . [but] may set a precedent for nations including China, India, Brazil, Japan, Indonesia, Russia, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia. Those countries all have rules stipulating strict consumer labeling and tracing of goods containing bio-engineered ingredients.

The U.S. insists that the crops are safe and shouldn't be distinguished from conventional seeds.

The [decision] also condemns national bans on marketing and releasing genetically modified organisms into the environment, imposed by governments including Germany, France, Austria and Greece.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Americans are the world's corporate guinea pigs for genetically modified foods.

The refusal of those governments to approve new seeds began the moratorium in 1998 . . .

U.S. industry groups say the EU ban has cost their exporters $300 million a year in lost sales.

That's about $2.4 billion in damages that they're demanding. That's not chump change.

Today's decision against national bans "is a direct attack on democracy,'' said Adrian Bebb, a campaigner at environmental group Friends of the Earth.

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[The EU cultivates] 98 million hectares (242 million acres), second only to the U.S., [but grows] less than 1 percent of the world's genetically modified crops.

Global biotech sales in 2006 will amount to $5.5 billion.

Pretty big bucks for an industry that is highly automated and whose laborers work CHEAP.

Switzerland, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, Algeria, Ghana, Benin, Zambia and Georgia are among countries that prohibit the planting of genetically engineered crops.

God forbid our government should be concerned enough about its own citizens to question the safety of genetically engineered crops.

The case is a test for the EU's "better-safe-than-sorry" food policy . . . which has kept hormone-treated beef from the U.S. and Canada out of the EU even though the WTO ruled in 1998 that [the] bloc hadn't scientifically proven a cancer risk to consumers from the treatments.

The EU has been paying $126 million a year in sanctions as a result and is working to get the retaliatory duties lifted on the grounds that it NOW has ENOUGH evidence [!!!]

So, all those steroid-steaks they've been feeding us cause cancer? Time for a class action law suit against the USDA on behalf of the American population!

GM varieties are engineered to resist specific herbicides or pesticides, letting a farmer spray his field with products that kill everything except his crop.

Some have genes that act as insecticides, prevent fungal growth or withstand drought. [somehow, none of this sounds reassuring]

Advocates say the technology boosts yields and cuts the number of times chemicals must be sprayed, meaning the soil is less compacted and limiting rainwater run-off and erosion.

Oh yeah? Then how do you explain why...

[t]he crops have increased the use of herbicides and pesticides over the last decade [and] contributed to deforestation and soil erosion [according to environmental group Friends of the Earth.]

[Moreover,] opponents say there are no proven health or environmental benefits to GM crops. They argue that they're no cheaper, nor have they helped alleviate hunger in Africa, because the crops are mostly for animal feed. They also say that engineered genes can't be contained, once released into the environment.

This is already causing a big fuss in the US where cross-pollination can result in PATENT infringement suits against farmers as well as civil suits by farmers against patentholders.

In 2000, StarLink, a genetically modified corn that contained a pesticide and was not approved for human consumption, was found processed into taco shells and other products.

How comforting.

And finally, to appreciate the magnitude of agri-biotech business in the United States and around the world. . .

The U.S. accounted for 55 percent of the global area planted to biotech crops last year, or 49.8 million hectares [!!!], Argentina 19 percent and Canada 6 percent, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications.

Now, you know why Americans are cooped up, like chickens, in a handful of major overcrowded cities on the east and west coasts of our nation. They drive us out of the heartland and buy the land CHEAP so they can grow the franken-food that we need to feed ourselves while we work their concrete plantations.